Why Nigeria poultry farmers don’t produce white eggs

The President Animal Care Konsult, Dr. Olatunde Agbato, has identified wrong market perception of white eggs as major reason why poultry farmers in the country don’t grow birds that lay such eggs.

Dr. Agbato, who spoke at the ongoing Poultry Show in Abeokuta, regretted that stakeholders in the industry have also failed to invest in educating the public on the issues which lead to the significant drop in the demand for white eggs due to low social appeal.

He said the most efficient egg laying breeds (Isa White) are not being used in Nigeria because they lay white eggs for which many Niegerians have negative perception.

Dr. Agbato, however, dismissed such perception, saying white eggs are equal to brown eggs in terms of quality and wholesomeness.

He said some breeds that lay white eggs are of relatively higher feed efficiency and performance in hot weather than brown breeds that are also able to lay brown eggs.

Dr. Agbato also advised farmers to pay increasing attention to science behind production of their seed stock.

“This is very important based on the final objectives for establishing the poultry. Some breeds are heavier than some others, while some breeds perform better than some others. Some breeds consume high quantity of feed, while some consume relatively less quantity of feed,” he said.

Dr Agbato said the market ultimately determines the type of breed to be invested in but added that the market may not always choose the most efficient breed which could be disadvantageous to farmers lacking the scale.